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Arrell
"Think about it. You've seen two personalities of his. One is carefree, optimistic, and - to be blunt - weird. The other is serious, quiet, and shy. Which do you think is the real Arrell?" '- Risk Reward', on Arrell The main protagonist of To Err is Equine, written by RLYoshi. He is a human turned into a Windigo. His player is Styx, the goddess of hatred. Canon status: Deuterocanon (To Err is Equine is canon; its sequel To Forgive, Celestial is non-canon). Main Theme: Your Hate Free Your Hate by KMFDM Appearance He has the same general appearance as a young Windigo; see the Windigoes page for more info. He apparently looks enough like a normal Windigo that he was able to successfully infiltrate the Rancid Windigoes' palace without being recognized despite the Rancid Windigoes searching for him. He eventually buys a wristwatch and wears it on his front-left leg, though he doesn't seem to use it much. He has also taken to wearing a pair of blue and yellow saddlebags, which later became linked with Alterspace. Personality Arrell's personality is rather shifty. Most of the time, he acts carefree and happy, though not without a snarky side. However, he can turn depressed or angry rather easily if the wrong thing is said or done. His happiness appears to just be a facade to hide his depression, though this does not always seem to be the case. Depending on how angry he is, his sanity and morality decreases. Normally, he seems somewhat average in terms of both and doesn't try to kill. When significantly angry, he begins fighting whatever opposes him, though still doesn't kill very much. If angered to the point of releasing the evil within him - which is actually his own anger sealed away - he forgets about not killing and completely slaughters whatever is in his way. When he calms down, he often regrets the killing he was forced to do and has to be comforted. Despite his typical goofy and somewhat annoying behaviour, Arrell is shown to be surprisingly intelligent. In the first bonus chapter, he had trouble sleeping, and so passed the time by going into the woods and jotting down math, physics, and science problems in the snow and solving them. Among them were discovering the exact time it would take to travel from Smooth Grove to Stalliongrad and how powerful an explosion would be needed to blow up Snowflake Woods. Arrell is shown to be somewhat shy early on; when he first meets False Front, he has trouble talking with her, though he may have simply been nervous due to having run away from Princess Celestia the day before. This behaviour has almost completely disappeared. History Nothing about Arrell's past as a human is known aside from the three days before he arrived in Equestria (though he states in chapter 34 that his life was actually decent, unlike several other chess pieces). He was visited once a day on these three days by Styx, and on the third day, he was given the option of either joining the game or staying on Earth and forgetting about ever seeing Styx. He chose to join the game, and was sent to Equestria with slight memory loss of these events. He regained them after a while. Since arriving in Equestria, Arrell has spent most of his time in Smooth Grove (a small village near Stalliongrad), or in Ponyville. He has protected Smooth Grove twice; the second time also protecting the rest of Equestria. After an incident involving the Fine Rock, Arrell accidentally caused several articles - objects from other universes given dangerous powers - to be released across Equestria. He has been given the job of retrieving these articles and storing them in Alterspace. At some point in the future, Arrell disappears for reasons unknown to the rest of the Winter Solstice, who set out to find him. He does not seem to be stationary, as he sends a couple messages to Asylum in Canterlot and one pony mentions having interacted with him recently. Skills Ice powers: Arrell has various ice powers that have been used. Below are the more common or memorable ones. *He can freeze water, though exactly how he does this is unknown. When angry, he can freeze an entire lake. *When angry, he can summon objects made of ice from seemingly nowhere. These include small pillars and large platforms. He can move them magically for as long as he wants. *He has an icy breath, which has been shown to be capable of completely freezing a pony solid. *He can absorb ice, healing himself to the point of coming back at full health from nearly dying. Ice and cold in general appears to heal or strengthen him just from being near it. Ice also seems to be used to keep him stable during his bouts of evolution sickness. *He can let himself be absorbed into snow or ice below him, which allows him to hide. However, it only works with snow or ice. *Other smaller powers include creating a fog made of ice, producing a cold air that he can collect in a ball to freeze the ground, shooting icicles from his hoof, and more. They rarely show up, however. Flight: Arrell can fly due to being a Windigo. He does this by letting his hind legs disappear into a ghostly trail and taking off into the air. At first he has trouble with this due to a fear of heights, but he has recently been shown being able to switch from the ground to the air in an instant. Due to Styx's interference, he has forgotten how to fly, and currently has yet to learn it again. Hatred sense: Arrell can sense hatred and was at first forced to move towards it. He has learned to resist this, though he can still sense hatred. Former Powers Voice attack: The first skill Arrell discovered he had, within moments of waking up in Equestria. Similar to a Fus Ro Dah from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim; he shouts loud enough to send his target flying. Every time he uses this, he has actually yelled "Fus Ro Dah", implying that he actually needs to say those words to make it work. Drop shield: Similar to the drop shield or bubble shield from the Halo franchise; Arrell swiftly forms a translucent dome that protects him, though it dissipates shortly. Despite the shield being said to only block projectiles, like in Halo, it has been used to block essentially whatever is currently a danger to Arrell. Din's Fire: Almost exactly like the ability of the same name from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time; Arrell produces a dome of fire from his body that shoots outward, growing weaker with distance and eventually fading. Oddly, despite his own weakness to fire, this ability does not hurt him. Focus Punch: Based on the attack of the same name from the Pokémon ''franchise; Arrell charges his hoof, then swings a punch that becomes more powerful the longer he charges it. Once the punch has been released, the glow fades away and the power is lost until he charges it again. Weaknesses Arrell's biggest weakness is fire and heat, as it will melt him. He is just barely able to survive in the heat of Appleloosa, which is in a desert. Due to recent events, he has lost all of his video game powers, rendering him incapable of using any magic beyond typical Windigo ice magic. This has made him significantly weaker than before. While physically strong, he seems to be weak emotionally, meaning it'd be easy to use psychological torture on him. Equipment Bloodbath's Axe: An axe that used to belong to Bloodbath. After being implied to have killed Bloodbath himself with it, Arrell took the axe for himself. He has yet to actually use it in battle, however. Saddlebags: A pair of blue and yellow saddlebags that Arrell finds in the forest next to Smooth Grove. They have infinite holding space and can hold just about anything without ever completely filling up or becoming too heavy. Arrell also seems to be able to pull them out of nowhere, as he will not be wearing them only to reach behind himself and pull them out. When questioned about this, he says nothing other than "I got them from my saddlebags", despite the obvious paradox. It was later revealed that the saddlebags are actually a portal to Alterspace, which explains their infinite holding space. Sai: He dual wields two sai when infiltrating the Rancid Windigoes' palace. These have made very few appearances since then. Relationships Risk Reward A unicorn with a formerly broken horn that Arrell met in Ponyville. The two of them appear to get along rather well, with Risk being rather understanding of Arrell's problems. However, he is not above teasing Arrell on occasion, as shown in chapter 42; similarly, Arrell has no problem with using very graphic threats against Risk to make him stop said teasing (though the sincerity of these threats is debatable). Arrell puts a fair amount of trust in Risk, giving him the Fine Rock to use as a replacement horn despite it being a valuable object. Recently, Risk has become more irritable around Arrell for reasons not specifically stated. False Front An earth pony Royal Guard that Arrell met in Manehatten. She previously disliked Arrell greatly, and while Arrell seemed to be oblivious to her irritation with him, it's been shown that he is in fact aware of it. Over time, she has warmed up to him to an extent, though is still easily annoyed by his actions and will not hesitate to speak badly about him, either behind his back or to his face. Recently, she has resolved to try and act in a much friendlier manner towards him; so far, this appears to have stuck. Nimble Night An earth pony ninja that Arrell met in Smooth Grove. He seems to be neutral towards Arrell and gets along better with Risk and Asylum. However, he still helps take on Cinder the Cyndaquil when Arrell is unable to, and when he appears to have been killed, Arrell gets angry enough to take on and defeat Cinder on his own, even killing him (albeit temporarily). Asylum A pegasus that Arrell met in Smooth Grove. She acts rather shy normally, but is very sympathetic towards Arrell and tries to comfort him; a trait that also shows through when she interacts with other ponies. From the beginning, Arrell considered her a good friend and seemed to trust her greatly. While working together to hunt down Jeff the Killer's Hoodie, the two of them became a couple. Styx Arrell's goddess. At first, the two seem neutral towards each other, but in chapter 34 Arrell has begun to grow mad with her, due to her constantly pushing him towards what he says are traumatizing events. In turn, Styx tells Arrell he is only her chess piece and must do what she says. They seemed to reconcile to an extent, though Styx removed Arrell's instinctual knowledge on how to fly in retaliation for their argument. Miscellaneous Aside from those listed above, Arrell's behaviour around ponies depends solely on whether they are on his side or against him. If they are on his side, he'll be cheerful and snarky as usual, but may open up more to them at times. If they are against him, he'll either be afraid of them and try to run away, or he'll goad them into attacking him. If he is unsure as to whether they are on his side or not, as with Risk and False when first meeting them, he'll usually act quiet until he can get some information from them. Trivia *Due to reading Chess Game of the Gods stories as a human, Arrell is aware that the world he is in isn't just a cartoon, but actually a series of fan fiction. *"Arrell" is an old Equestrian battle cry meaning a comeback. This seems to fit Arrell rather well, as he often appears to be about to fail or die before recovering just in time. *Arrell's personality has changed significantly over time. He started off as nervous and irritable; became goofy after meeting False; added snarky to his personality after leaving Ponyville; started becoming easy to anger after dealing with the Dusk of Ice and Fire; and finally also began trying to conceal depression and fear after the incident with the Rancid Windigoes. Aside from his nervousness, he now seems to be a combination of all these personalities at once. Quotes *"Go to hell."'' - First words in Equestria, said to a manticore. *''"Let's hit the road! ...or the dirt path, given the circumstances. Either one."'' *''"I'm going to freeze you all alive if you don't leave in five seconds. ...TIme's up."'' *''"There are a lot of things I don't like. Some are fears, some are pet peeves. You may control fire, my biggest fear...but you've also hurt my friend. And THAT is my biggest pet peeve. You don't just waltz in here and start beating up me or my friends. It's just something you DON'T DO. But you've done it, and therefore, you've broken a rule. A rule that I made. And I don't like it when my rules are broken."'' Category:All Category:Pieces Category:Deuterocanon Category:OC Category:Characters Category:Alive Category:Protagonist